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Thursday, February 14, 2013

Television Time

Happy Valentines Day to all you lovers out there!



And now for the real post! :)

What are your favorite TV shows?  I have quite a few that I'm hooked on, much to my husband's chagrin.  And I try to get him to watch them all with me, to his even greater chagrin. :)  To his credit he does watch a few, and we enjoy discussing and analyzing them together.  The rest though, he leaves me to my own devices.

We spent 2011 with no TV because we decided we could no longer afford cable, even the most basic option.  So we canceled it and just relied on DVDs for our entertainment.  We found a few things we could watch online for free, but that wasn't the best option because we don't have a laptop (nor a fancy new TV that can hook up to the internet), so we'd have to get as comfortable as we could in chairs huddled around the computer desk.  Not fun for extended periods of time.  

For awhile, we enjoyed getting DVDs of old TV shows from our library, like All In The Family, Father Knows Best, and The Andy Griffith Show.  I even actually bought the first season of The Donna Reed Show, probably my favorite old TV show of all time.


Around this time last year, I got fed up with not being able to watch ANY programming on TV and bought an indoor antennae to hook up to our dual DVD/VCR player, which has a digital TV tuner in it.  We can't get a lot of channels, but what we can get has been a sanity-saver for me.  I'm sorry, but I LIKE television, and refuse to be made to feel guilty over it!  We can get three PBS channels, CBS, ABC, and FOX.  I'm sad that we can't get NBC because that's where all of the figure skating is shown, but I'm content with what we do have.  

We love PBS.  One show that we're hooked on is Downton Abbey.  It's total soap opera, but it's soap opera in gorgeous Edwardian clothes and decor.  

Other favorites on PBS are Antiques Roadshow, History Detectives, and Call The Midwife.

We really don't watch much of anything on CBS, except Wheel of Fortune.  Yeah, we're old nerds.  CBS is sort of crime-drama central, and neither of us enjoy that genre.



ABC though has a lot of our favorite shows.  We LOVE Once Upon A Time, The Middle, The Neighbors, Modern Family, and Nashville.   Well ok, I love Nashville.  Husband is usually in bed by the time it's on.  

We both enjoy Touch on Fox, as well.  I liked Fringe, too, but discovered it too late to be able to watch it in real time on TV.  By the time I was all caught up with the seasons on DVD, it had been canceled.  :(

There are quite a few cable shows that we like as well, but have to wait for them to come out on DVD to watch which makes waiting unbearable sometimes.  For me, anyway.  Can you tell yet that Husband is not quite the TV enthusiast as I am?  

Mad Men and Game of Thrones are two that come to mind that we devoured on DVD.  Literally, like watching a whole season in one weekend.  



I truly, truly, lament the loss of TCM when we canceled cable.  So many of those old movies aren't available on DVD nor can they be seen anywhere online.  As we were leading up to our cable cut off date in 2011, I was recording movies like a mad woman on our VCR.  Yeah, we still use our VCR.  No, we don't have a DVR.  Wanna make something of it?  :)  (we don't have cell phones either, but that's another blog post)

What are some of your favorite TV shows?  Or have you eschewed TV altogether?

11 comments:

  1. Happy Valentine's Day to you, too. TV we don't have; however, our son and daughter talked us into Netflix. We just have the basic online account, but it is good enough for now. When I was taking care of my mom, she and I would watch HGTV channel and tear everything apart. lol Some of the shows are available online, but most are just the final few minutes clips. We still watch video tapes and DVD's. I really only have two favorite shows, Jane by Design and Glee. I'll admit that I'm hooked.

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    1. I used to love watching HGTV too, and the Food Network.

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  2. My favorite tv show of all time is MASH. Sad to say they aren't making any new episodes!

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    1. What about WKRP in Cincinnati?

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    2. That's one of MY faves for sure... the 'down' side to the DVD collection (I don;t have yet, but have scoured the Amazon reviews) is that they cannot use the original rock tunes, unless they want to pay royalties to each one...which is a drag...heck, at this point it's free advertising for some of those old bands, and would drum up sales from a new generation of kids, most likely...
      But yeah, one of my Top5 - the TIP top is...Sanford and Son... it's just funny to me... MASH is great, my wife's TOTAL fav, her being a nurse and all... of course, Seinfeld is right there at the top as well (I DO have the 'entire set' of those on DVD...) - and, I guess for #5...hmmmm... it sounds a bit weird from a dude, but...Designing Women...just thought the ladies were AWESOME in it...

      ok, that's 5, I guess... although not sure where I thought I had to limit to 5... anyway... as to new shows, honestly, no network shows really work for me... I'm into the pawn shop folks in Vegas, the 'pickers' who go rummage thru junk, and perhaps the goofiest reality show, yet, strangely addicting to me... 'Finding Bigfoot'... actually, I think they were in your neck of the woods a few episodes back, Betsy...

      Well, there ya go... here's hoping all is well, and...you can get TV back... if it is what ya want... heck, I could just watch GingerFilms indefinitely... but it's good to have news info if weather is bad, etc...

      KIG, Gingerella!!!

      Hu
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    3. Oh yeah, we have the first season of WKRP (which is the only season so far to be released) and the dubbed in "generic" rock songs they have in lieu of the originals make it a little cheesy and less relevant....but my husband (anonymous above) still loves it.

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  3. We went for a spell (the better part of two years) without a TV at all when we lived in Ireland (no money for a TV or cable), and I missed it quite a lot, but found it easier to do without the longer we were without it. Could I live without TV again if I had to? Sure, of course (especially if I had the internet), but I do rather enjoy it, especially on those frequent days when I'm bedridden (which is the bulk of the time for me) and may not feel well enough to use the computer, read a book, etc. Having TV to distract me from how I'm feeling a put a smile on my face is really important to me. (Some of my favourite things to watch are history programs, biographies, classic movies, murder mysteries, and the shows Mad Men, Boardwalk Empire, and White Collar.)

    ♥ Jessica

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    1. I could live without TV again if I had to, but it would try my patience for sure. :) Actually what made me go out and buy the antennae was I was so pissed that I couldn't watch any figure skating! And lo and behold, the channel that figure skating is on (NBC) is the one we can't get because our local NBC station's transmitter isn't strong enough, lol. Phooey.

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  4. ...oh, lest I forget... wickedawesome GingerPic... :-P

    ...and I notice Gingerella is back!!! If I could put the "dancing banana" emoticon on here, I would!!!

    Have a bodaciously Gingery weekend, Gingerella!!!

    Hu
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  5. Fun post:) It got me thinking...my fave classic show is I Love Lucy. I'm totally addicted to Mad Men, Breaking Bad and Sons of Anarchy. And the news ~ I'm a politcal junkie:)

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